Question for cruisers: Do you leave your boat at anchor unattended?

[Emoyeni]

My family is seriously considering going cruising full time and I have a newbie question regarding the logistics of leaving the boat to do experiences on land. In a place like the mediterranean, is it OK to leave the boat unattended at an anchorage while you do day trips? How practical is this in reality? Just trying to determine how much to budget for mooring fees vs expecting that I will be able to find a spot most places that is safe enough to leave the boat at anchor for the day. And beyond that, would it be OK to do this over night? Over a week?

[Mike OReilly]

All depends on your ability to anchor, and your comfort level in being away. I rarely leave my boat for more than a 1/2 day at anchor, but I have done so on occasion. I only do it when I am very confident my anchor is well dug in, AND only when weather looks reasonable.

[fxykty]

Day trips, sure, leave the boat at anchor if you’re confident about the anchoring location and weather forecast.

But when we’ve planned to spend one or more nights off the boat we’ve always put our boat onto a commercial mooring or pulled into a marina berth or public jetty. Weird, because I’d trust our anchor gear and technique more than about half the moorings that we’ve used, but there you go. However, our insurance won’t cover us if we’re not on board overnight when anchored. YMMV

Moorings are typically a fraction of the cost of a marina berth. And some places have public jetties or fishing wharfs that are less expensive than marinas.

For longer trips away (say more than a month) we would prefer to haul out.

The last thing you want to be doing when you’re away from your boat is to be worrying about whether she’s safe.

[LoudMusic]

I don't think we ever left the boat overnight on anchor but certainly did a lot of day trips away from the boat on anchor. We would certainly double check the anchor before leaving and check the weather for the time we would be gone.

Many people leave their boat on anchor for days at a time. I can't imagine the stress that would put me in.

[goboatingnow]

I am not insured to do that for extended periods anyway.

[carstenb]

We've left our boat many a time for day trips and several ties for overnights. I must admit that we're not comfortable leaving her when gone overnight.

We trust our anchor (over 1000 nights with only 1 drag) but when we are away we spend our time thinking about her.

We trust our anchor more than any mooring ball - but there you go

[HeywoodJ]

Have never even thought to wonder about it. Have spent up to a week doing inland touring with the boat hanging on the hook. Most times there are other cruisers around that might be able to keep a bit of any eye on things, but sometimes no one about.

Do consider weather forecasts, and frequently have two anchors down in a loose Bahamian mooring, those are just standard precautions to us.

In the modern era we leave the AIS on and can use MarineTraffic to know pretty closely the location of the boat. Not sure that does much good if your travel time back is significant, nevertheless, sometimes check in to get warm fuzzies.

[Benz]

It all depends on the place and situation. I've left the boat alone and anchored for a week+ but I knew the location and the set of the anchor and the behavior of the winds.
There are places where I would absolutely not leave the boat overnight, and places where I won't go further ashore than I can see the boat from, and places where I make sure someone's on the boat at all times. So, the whole spectrum. You'll figure out where your comfort level is.

[Don C L]

Were you talking about the boat being safe in terms of the anchor dragging or safe from people?

[RaymondR]

There is no limit to the number of anchors you can put out.

[wholybee]

I never think twice about day trips. I frequently leave for overnights if the weather is fine, and have been gone as long as 2 weeks with another sailor in the Anchorage looking after.

[picklesandjesse]

In a recent flood here on the Clarence River in NSW we had the biggest flood on this part of the river for maybe 100 years. I anchored my boat across the river in the shallower water approx 14ft deep with 300ft of chain and NZ Mason anchor. All the boats with moorings were swept away along with their moorings. Mine was the last to go at night when who knows how fast the river was going? Well over hull speed. She was seen a couple of days later hooked up on something and I was able to retrieve her along with 80ft of chain a few days later.
So, anchors do work if set correctly. I now have all new chain and a new Rocna anchor....... less $1700. Not insured. The event was quite stressful but that's life, better than being in Ukraine.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Emoyeni

is it OK to leave the boat unattended at an anchorage while you do day trips?

Of course otherwise how would cruisers ever get to go see anything. But the longest I have left my boat at anchor was a return to around 2am after a "day trip".

But I have seen the same boats in Florida on anchor for over 5 years with no sign of anyone ever visiting them.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

There is no limit to the number of anchors you can put out.

Actually that's a tricky subject and not that easy.
If you have tidal flow it can make things complicated and the chains of more then one anchor can twist each other.
In the worst case they twist so much that the rode is really shortened and your anchor looses grip.

One solution I'd see here is fixing both chains fairly high up to a common swivel and then to a piece of chain to the boat.

Set anchor one by pulling it into the seabad. Give lots of slack, drop second anchor.

You probably need a retrieval line on one of them then.
Obviously depends on the location and tidal influence.

Longest I left my boat on the hook unattended was 7 days.
Felt itchy all the time when looking at the weather though, still, as I had to attend a funeral at the time there was no real other option. Marina was to far to reach.
All was good upon return though.

[sailcrazy]

We will set our anchor, turn the anchor drag alarm on and visible tracks on, and spend some time on the boat. Depending on the location, winds, wx, we'll give it a couple of hours to a day, watching the chart screen on the chart plotter.-with the scale set to something like 50'. If we don't change position, ie, just swing side-to-side, but not move back after a while, we feel confident and able to leave the boat. but, on the other hand, we did follow our "procedure", sat onboard for nearly half a day, then went to town......only to discover she dragged, was noticed dragging by a couple of local boaters. They took their dinks, went onboard and used the lines we keep tied to the granny rails, and tied our boat to theirs-and kept her from going on the rocks!!!!! "Stuff" happens, we got lucky. It depends....but we still, do, leave our boat unattended and go ashore.